Lyichir

There's also the factor that it benefits Lego to have sets at a wide range of price points. A parent who wants to get their kid one set for their birthday might consider an $90 to $120 set a great surprise, but consider buying three or four $30 sets excessive (despite it ultimately costing them the same amount). That's a part of why you sometimes even see even smaller sets bundled in one box as a "value pack" (despite not really offering savings over buying the sets individually). Bundling also helps to spread the demand of various subjects evenly. Even if a set could be broken down into multiple smaller sets, there's no guarantee that each of those subjects would sell equally well. The museum in the Capital City, for instance, is not that large or impressive and only really "works" in the context of the open-air tour bus to take them there and the crane to install and deinstall the caveman exhibit. Together, those components form a story, but separately, there's little guarantee that the less individually impressive parts would sell well enough to justify a separate SKU at all. This is especially true for things like trains, for which certain parts like the engine would be considered essential while other cars would merely be optional supplements. That's one of the main reasons Lego no longer sells individual train cars, the other being that kids and parents generally prefer getting a "complete" play experience in one box rather than having to choose and buy each component of a complete train circuit individually (despite that option being far more preferable to the smaller market adult train fans who can more easily plan and visualize the layout they want and would be more likely to buy multiples of certain segments if given the choice).

I'd argue it has already. The Haunted House and Vampyre Castle are good but never "wowed" me to the extent that sets like the high school and shrimp shack already have. A part of that is just that set design has come an awful long way in the past decade—the level of detail and the dynamism of functions are leaps and bounds ahead of where they were in the heyday of themes like Monster Fighters and Atlantis, as much of a fan of those as I was then. Also, the flip side of "timeless" is things sometimes feeling a bit generic. The Haunted House could be rereleased today and feel just as suited for a Halloween display as it was back then (albeit perhaps a bit more basic than if they designed a new haunted house set from scratch), but part of that is because the characters in the Monster Fighters theme were largely very basic monster archetypes. Personally, as a fan of story themes, I feel much more drawn in to the characters and setting of Hidden Side, which trades the universal timelessness of Monster Fighters' spooky characters and settings for a more unique and engaging cast and story framework.

Personally I'm more fond of the modern, grounded setting of Hidden Side and prefer the sets in that theme as a result. It reminds me of series like Danny Phantom or the webcomic Paranatural.

Just an FYI for future reference, Lego generally can't take fan suggestions like that for use in their shows or stories outside of official contests or other ways of directly soliciting fan ideas. Without any sort of contractual agreement, they couldn't be sure that they'd be legally in the clear to use an idea that didn't originate with the company. This applies to most other non-Lego creative media as well, from books to comics to TV shows.

Well, I think there's less likely to be any sort of direct crossover since unlike Ninjago and Chima, Lego City Adventures is the work of a different animation studio.

There are a number of problems with this approach. The first is that for really well-done figs, with new prints and possibly even new molds, it's more cost effective to release a bunch of those if at least some of the parts (helmets, face prints, and what have you) are shared with other sets—a challenge if there is only one set with members of that particular faction. Secondly, the popularity of those minifigure sets is driven at least partly by the popularity of the theme as a whole. The City minifigure packs, for instance, are often bought to help augment the population of existing City sets. So without other sets for the figs to go with, sales of a themed minifigure pack like that are far from a sure thing. And the third is that, when people want themes or factions back... it's not always just about the figs, even for MOCists. For Ice Planet, for instance, just as important as the figs are building elements like transparent orange windscreens and accessories, white skis and off-road wheels, and various decorated elements that can be used to label that factions ships as belonging to them.

I remember a comment my sister made on this subject a while ago that might help resolve this dispute about width vs. height:

In most cases I think the minifigure design has to get finalized before the show design, so I'd chalk that up to the show being inaccurate (or at least, the two depictions diverging during development) rather than the other way around. Personally I prefer the ghost trai both because it's more unique (making Aspheera stand out more from Char and past Serpentine) and more compact (the huge size of the snake tail can make a challenge to integrate into vehicles or scenes), although both pieces fail to work with the spinners, unfortunately.

If you're interested in why the spacing is the way it is, this Brickset article goes into detail about the many geometric possibilities it offers: https://brickset.com/article/23288/the-geometry-of-the-new-11x11-circle-gear-rack

Yup! From the Elves theme. I had the exact same thought when I saw those in Trans. Yellow!

Haha, thanks for the tip, @pooda. Having grown up in the '90s, alongside those sorts of sets... I don't think there's much to miss, especially in the town/City range. Vehicles were almost universally a step down, typically being much smaller and less detailed. As for buildings, I can't think of many that outclassed modern ones either—the closest that comes to mind is 2150 Train Station but that's mostly because train stations in the City theme tend to be smaller, more modern types instead of that sort of stately architecture. Even then, the build is definitely quite dated compared to most modern buildings. Did you see last year's City Hospital (60204)? I think you'll find that it offers much of the same sort of subject matter as the set you mention and then some. The main thing it lacks is the driveway and baseplate, which many people do prefer (though I tend to prefer a smaller more compact base that you can then integrate into a larger layout if you so choose).

Sometimes I think Lego pairs popular subjects like the bus and sports car with less obvious ones like the museum and hotel deliberately, to better sell that less demanded subject matter. Yes, the bus and car might have sold even better on their own, but then people who want a museum or hotel (especially adult fans who make up a more niche market) might end up not getting either. So sets like the Capital (or some of the earlier "assortment" type large City sets) allow them to sell a more diverse range of subjects than they might otherwise be able to if every part of them had to be sold independently. It's sort of similar to how the CMFs allow for a more diverse range of subject matter than other themes by "bundling" more obviously popular types of characters that have proven to sell in other themes (like astronauts or police or knights) with archetypes that might be a little more obscure or less obvious to most kids (like the Spartan warrior, crash test dummy, or Monkey King).

I think that there's a difference between "dying" and changing. Lego.com is unquestionably a different sort of place than it was ten to 20 years ago. Recent updates have focused the site into two different silos—one for kids activities and one for adult shoppers. Gone are the visually distinct, independent subpages for themes that I used to love as a kid—what remains are more matter of fact and orderly catalogs of what's available. Nostalgically speaking, it's quite a shame, though I suppose from an adult perspective the newer format is more honest about its core purpose of advertising the products. And those changes also mirror those of the internet as a whole. Single purpose sites have largely gone by the wayside compared to larger social media hubs like Facebook and YouTube when it comes to reaching kids. Even for adults, sites like this very forum feel more and more like an anomaly as more people tend to gather and find each other under the larger umbrella of sites like Facebook.

I haven't seen any official mention but I suspect it may be based in the Southern U.S. (particularly a coastal state like Louisiana) Evidence in favor of such a location includes J.B.'s southern accent from the animation teaser we've gotten, the emphasis on seafood in the Shrimp Boat and Diner (as well as both sets' swampy environments), and the neocolonial architecture of the high school set.

I'd seen these before but they're still great. I do wish that Lego were more forthcoming with concept materials for their themes, since I'd love to see things like concept art for the characters as well. That said, I do understand some of the reasons they may opt not to, since especially in the case of unused concepts or ones that differ greatly from the final product, publishing those concepts might easily be seen as offering free ideas to competitors (or at the very least, spoiling ideas that Lego might well consider reusing in future themes).

For what it's worth, I tried to be as respectful as possible (heck, even offering genuine constructive advice) in my post that you replied to calling me a "twat", so maybe you should stop blaming your anger problems on other people. On the TV show discussion, I'll interject that 2D animation, especially if done well, can be as expensive or moreso than 3D animation, meaning that neither should be seen as inherently "cheaper". The best way to make an animated Lego show cheaper is probably less a matter of style and more a matter of the length of episodes, with shorter 11-minute episodes like Unikitty or the new Ninjago series, or even shorter web animations like those for Bionicle or Elves, offering more bang for your buck. A Lego Castle TV series could be amazing, though personally in my case I felt like Nexo Knights was a great example of that—particularly in how it used a techno-medieval setting to draw humor from both medieval and modern society. A TV show for a "traditional" castle theme might offer a bit less range of possible scenarios, though I'm sure it could still be done well. Ultimately, the biggest barrier to such a thing is probably the small number of themes Lego can offer that kind of media budget and promotional focus to at a time. A "Big Bang" treatment for a Castle theme would have to prove its worth over other potential themes to get that treatment, which might be a hard case to make especially since Nexo Knights already did something fairly similar in the recent past. If anything I think Lego might sooner opt to give the next Space theme that sort of treatment—even among recent Space themes like Galaxy Squad and Alien Conquest, none have experimented with a full TV series. And given the popularity of Benny and his Classic Space trappings in the Lego movies, Space might have a better business case for giving that kind of big budget to a classic approach.

I don't think complaining about Lego's current designs and strategies without bothering to consider why they are the way they are puts you on a good footing to get a position working there. Like, you're dissatisfied with how things are right now. That's not bad or wrong on its own. But refusing to acknowledge the mindset of the current design and marketing teams, or consider the business case for current strategies versus a return to how things were many years ago (when Lego as a company was not nearly as successful), doesn't really show respect for the people already working there, nor does it demonstrate an ability to effectively learn from trends and market feedback and apply those to new ideas and strategies. If you really want to make yourself stand out as a good candidate for a job with Lego, it might be better to focus less on what they shouldn't do (especially when that consists of things that are currently working out pretty well for them) and more on new ideas that they should. Concepts for how City could integrate more residences and businesses at a range of different price points, for instance, or how to make an older category like, say, the Farm subtheme feel fresh and new (and ideally, succeed in a way the original didn't). That's harder than just pointing out something you don't like and saying it shouldn't exist (sales numbers be damned), but it also is probably a better and more productive exercise for somebody who wants to get a job with Lego, or for that matter, any sort of creative career.

What an amazing concept! I love it!

It's not the only thing that sells. But it is the thing that sells best, and most consistently, and that's not a new phenomenon by a long shot. The stable presence of police and fire sets is probably a big part of what allows Lego to more safely experiment with and cycle through other subthemes (including newer ones like the various exploration-based subthemes).

Trying to wrap my head around how "less police" is a conservative position. :P That said, the benefit of the police subthemes is that instead of getting ordinary, interchangeable police themes year after year we're at least getting some variety. Police sets are one of Lego's biggest and most consistent sellers, so if they stopped doing "themed" police it'd most likely result in just getting standard City Police repeating itself every year, rather than some resurgence of other, less popular subthemes.

There was actually a talk about this set (and the earlier Voltron set by the same designer) at BrickFair Virginia, which was recorded and uploaded here: During the talk they explained some of the design considerations, including the slide-out interior. Basically, since part of how the app recognizes the position of the sets is by their silhouettes, they opted for an interior that can be removed without dramatically changing the shape of the bus itself.

All Lego trains have been for kids from the very beginning. Don't lose sight of that.

Having finally watched the “fire season” and gotten some of the summer sets... it is a bit of a shame that Aspheera doesn’t come with an extra “normal” set of legs so she can use Spinjitzu, since that’s kind of a big deal for her character arc. Unfortunately, I can’t find a perfect set of existing legs for that. Flame Yellowish Orange is a bit too garish and transitions well from the flames on the front of the torso but poorly from the gold sides of the torso. Gold has the opposite problem, with it matching the plastic color of the rest of the figure but transitioning poorly from the print on the torso. And the legs from the lesser fire snakes don’t work perfectly either, since even though the flame motifs match the torso flames okay while being subtler than solid Flame Yellowish Orange legs, their dominant tan color doesn’t even match the printed (white) wrappings on Aspheera’s torso. Neither do the printed white legs from the CMF mummy, which include Sand Green “skin” showing through and are otherwise TOO consistently white to match the subtler printed wrappings on Aspheera’s gold torso. If I had my wish the ideal solution might have been either gold legs printed with flame and wrapping patterns or Flame Yellowish Orange hips with Trans. Orange legs printed to evoke the same sort of pattern as the “ghost trail” legs, but at that point I recognize it would have been a pretty major expense for an alternate set of legs that only serve to make her compatible with the spinners. I do think that if I were to settle for an imperfect set of legs (which, after all, would be mostly obscured by a spinner), the gold and Trans. Orange spinner from Kai vs. Samurai would probably be perfect.

You’re mistaking a drop-off in user visibility from its peak (when it was such a phenomenon that completely unrelated businesses were rushing to capitalize on this weird new trend) for it no longer being popular. But even if the number of active users were a fraction of what it was then, that’d still be a respectable user base. I’m not even sure the number of active users IS lower than it was in those early days—just more spread out, as Niantic’s location data expands to include smaller landmarks and points of interest across more of the world. And as people above point out, even irregular users still tend to turn out in parks and similar public spaces during limited time events like the community days. But getting back to Lego, I doubt Lego will mind if Hidden Side turns out to be a briefer fad. Most themes max out at about three years or so, so if Lego can maintain a reasonable amount of engagement over that period (through the periodic release of new sets and digital content), it will likely be considered a success that may influence similar projects going forward. Finally, don’t read too much into early Amazon sales. Despite being a typical release period for Lego, August isn’t a huge month for toy sales. While major retailers might have to incentivize the sets to shift product early on (when fewer people are buying and the app is still getting off the ground), that could change as the app adds new content and we get closer to holidays where sales pick up. In particular, expect these sets to surge around Halloween (when demand is likely to pick up for a spooky theme like this and the Hidden Side team has teased seasonal content for the app) and when we get closer to Christmas (a major gift-giving holiday which may favor novel products like these).

I think a Friends-like structure would be good, actually. Certainly not ALL limited to “subthemes” (with several sets each wave that don’t tie in with a larger subthemes), but with at least a few sets that tie in with one another from wave to wave. The problem with avoiding a strategy like that altogether is that the longer a theme goes on, the greater the risk of waves “blending together” and newer sets failing to stand out. Having motifs or themes to tie new waves together helps to emphasize a sense of progression and “newness” even when older sets remain available. In that sense, having upcoming waves that feature new subjects that fit together thematically as parts of a larger whole (like a fairground, summer camp, or shopping mall) could help to create a “focal point” of sorts for each new wave while still allowing room for one-off locations and vehicles that don’t relate directly to those subjects.